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Brad\u00a0Blan with the Mansfield Water Utilities\u00a0encourages River, a water leak detection dog, to continue searching for a hidden container of water during a demonstration in Mansfield. River can detect water leaks by sniffing out chlorine.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Before Richard\u00a0Everhart can fully open the back door of his white Ram 1500, a fuzzy, brown snout pokes out and a glistening nose wiggles as it sniffs the air.<\/p>\n
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Splash, one of Arlington Water Utilities\u2019 newest full-time employees, wags his tail and pants in excitement as he waits for his next assignment.<\/p>\n
Everhart grabs the leash and Splash jumps from the vehicle. The two move into a huddle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like riling\u00a0up a football player or athlete before they go into a game,\u201d Everhart says before bending down to ruffle Splash\u2019s hair.\u00a0\u201cAre you ready, boy? You ready? Let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair takes off into a field as the husky-Labrador mix leads, nose to the ground smelling for any trace of chlorine\u00a0\u2014 a telltale sign of an unwanted water leak.<\/p>\n
Read more: Could Texas\u2019 water crisis spread to Dallas-Fort Worth? Experts warn of future risks<\/a><\/p>\n In less than a minute, Splash finds the small cup of water his handler planted to show off how a K-9 water leak detection team operates. Splash signals that he\u2019s found the scent by laying next to the spot and Everhart rewards him with a treat for a job well done.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThese dogs tend to be either food motivated or toy motivated,\u201d Alex Whiteway, Arlington Water Utilities director,\u00a0said. \u201cIn this case, Splash is paid in hot dogs and a lot of love.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard\u00a0Everhart, a K9 handler with the Arlington Water Utilities, rewards\u00a0Splash with\u00a0 some hot dog\u00a0for locating a cup of water in an empty field Arlington. Splash is trained to sniff out chlorine, indicating underground pipe leaks.<\/p>\n Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Water leak detection K-9s are a new tool water utilities across the globe are using to locate leaky pipes quicker, including ones that are sometimes more difficult to detect than obvious ones spouting from the surface.<\/p>\n In a place like Texas, where water scarcity and conservation are top of mind, detecting leaks quickly is important. A minor leak of just 1 gallon per minute can result in over 500,000 gallons of water loss per year.<\/p>\n Satellite technology is first used to detect any potential underground water leak within about\u00a0a 300-foot radius, then the K-9 and its handler can use that information to narrow in on a more exact location. The dogs are trained to sniff out chlorine, a chemical found in treated water and easy to differentiate from the smell of natural groundwater.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cMost of our water leaks are reported through phone calls from the public alerting us to water bubbling up out of the ground,\u201d Whiteway said. \u201cThe difference [with Splash] is finding the leak that\u2019s going through the dirt, that\u2019s going in our storm sewers, that\u2019s going in the sanitary sewer system that we don\u2019t see. We want to try to be good stewards with water, so that\u2019s where Splash has been instrumental in helping us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2019Collaboration to save water\u2019<\/p>\n Water leak detection dogs were first used in Australia and the United Kingdom, according to industry reports. Podcasts and articles about the K-9s spread the idea to the United States soon after.\u00a0<\/p>\n Arkansas became the first place in North America to implement a K-9 water leak detection dog when Central Arkansas Water introduced Vessel in 2019. A couple years later, Aqua Water Supply Corp. in Bastrop adopted and trained Charlie<\/a>, making him the first water leak detection dog in Texas.<\/p>\n Though the practice isn\u2019t yet common, there\u2019s a growing number of water leak detection dogs across the country, and North Texas is home to two of them: Arlington\u2019s Splash and Mansfield Water Utilities’ River.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Splash takes a drink before searching a field for water in Arlington.<\/p>\n Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n \u201cDogs are not replacing anything,\u201d Lolita\u00a0Shaffer, CEO of K9 Water Leak Detection and K9 Water Leak Detection University, said. \u201cThis is a collaboration to save water.\u201d<\/p>\n Shaffer is based in Oklahoma and has worked with Carrie Kessler, who trained Splash and River. She says water detection dogs are gaining traction because of the growing number of trainers and teams acting as ambassadors, speaking to its effectiveness and the increasing amount of data that proves it works.<\/p>\n Data some K-9 teams are tracking include the depth of each discovered leak, the pipe type and size, and how much flow is coming out as a way to describe it as a big or small leak.<\/p>\n Shaffer said the dogs are efficient because they can smell a single drop of chlorine in 20 Olympic-sized pools.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Brad\u00a0Blan, of the Mansfield Water Utilities, puts a couple splashes of water into a container he uses to train River.<\/p>\n Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n \u201cThe K-9s teams are saving water so much faster because they\u2019re able to cover so much more area quickly and narrow it down,\u201d\u00a0Shaffer said. \u201cIt\u2019s important because our [water] infrastructure is failing, and it\u2019s never not going to be failing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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